“Except for the king’s guard.” She pushed off from the stonewall, the sun warming her back—herclothedback—as it splashed through the window. Maybe she should start parading around half-naked and see how well he ignoredherchest. “And now, you’re right in the castle.”
“I’m not in the throne room, which is where I need to be,” Carver grumbled.
Rolling her eyes, she grabbed a drying cloth from the pile of fresh laundry and tossed it at him. The necklace she’d given him to ward off the evil eye was the only thing he consistently wore, and she didn’t consider that clothing. “It’ll come.” Nothing ever satisfied him, and he never thought he was good enough. In only six months, he’d already moved up the ranks from nothing soldier at a random fishing port to patrolling the inner walls of the castle with one of King Eryx’s highest-ranking units. “Besides, you have a knack for being in the middle of everything.”
He shot her a dark look. “Somehow, that doesn’t sound like a compliment.”
She threw a clean tunic at him next, hoping he’d take the hint. She wasn’ttryingto stare, but he made it difficult. “You’re a mess, by the way. You look like you got attacked by a bunch of goats. You definitely lost.”
His lips twitched. He pulled the tunic on and added a sword belt and boots. “At least you didn’t have to sew anything up. Magoi healers don’t exist here, and I know for a fact you’re terrible with a needle.”
“A needle?” She scoffed. “To the Underworld with that. I’d go straight to cauterization.”
“I’m sure you would.” She didn’t like his tone and shot a spark at him. Carver swatted it out of the air, glowering. “You know these are wooden floors, right?”
“Well then, we should really move into the castle. Marble everywhere.”
“I’m working on it, princess.” The look Carver gave her was just as sour as his words. “In the meantime, try not to burn down the city anddo notpour fish soup into anyone’s lap today. It doesn’t help.”
“Sure it does. Patrons don’t try to grab my backside anymore.”
A muscle feathered in his jaw, his steely gray eyes still on her as he reached for his sword. “You need to control your temper. Someone here seesonespark come off you, and theyknow. Is that what you want?”
Of course not. Why did he think she was wearing an atrocious brown shawl and had her hair wound up so tightly it would give her a headache within the hour? Bellanca stared back at him, letting her lips curve into a smile as rock-hard as his glare. “Maybe I’ll be revered. Atlantis’s one and only Magoi.Firebringer.” Her hands blazed to life. Wooden floors or not, she needed to let out some flames before she left home or the day would turn into a nightmare.
Her magic left a sweet, appetizing scent in the room, and Bellanca’s stomach rumbled, making her suddenly regret throwing half her breakfast away. There was no guarantee she’d have a chance to eat at Spiro’s before lunchtime.
Carver gave her the stink eye. His nostrils flared, almost quivering, and she could’ve sworn his muscles twitched all over, reminding her of a horse trying to shake off an annoyance.
That was her—the annoyance of Carver’s existence.
She pulled her magic back inside and lifted her chin. “ThenfinallyI’ll get to live in a castle again instead of this hovel.”
“This is no hovel. Your mother’s jewels paid for this for a full year when we could’ve bought a lesser place forlifewith those rubies and pearls.”
Well, this might not be a hovel, and there was quite a view, but it was certainly no marble palace, and Bellanca sincerely hopedMommy Dearest was tearing her hair out in the Underworld knowing her precious Tarvan royal gems had landed in the hands of a Hoi Polloi Atlantian for—gasp(and why not throw in a rage murder for fun?)—mere rented rooms.
She arched her brows. “You’d want to live with me for life?” They were lucky to have separate bedrooms across a whole living area and with heavy doors to shut between them. Otherwise, there was a good chance they might accidentally/on purpose kill each other while sleepwalking.
Or while awake.
Carver’s gaze turned flinty. “We’re supposed to be married. Or did you forget?”
It was hard to forget when he kept reminding her. “Ah, well, couples drift apart.”
Silence stretched between them. Her heart thumped in a way she didn’t appreciate. There was no good reason for it.
“I’m making decent wages,” he finally said. “I can move out.”
Her chest squeezed tight, her whole body turning icy-hot. Life with Carver was all thorns and teeth, but life without him? She cut off the thought. “Do whatever you want.”
“I will, princess.” Carver threw on his leather breastplate bearing King Eryx’s coat of arms and buckled the side straps without asking for her help. His clothing covered the evidence of yesterday’s battle, leaving only a few raw knuckles for anyone to wonder about. The upper body armor had yet to see a fight, although that might change considering all the recent kidnappings and violent attacks around Atlantis. “See you tonight—unless someone here figures out what a flaming harpy you are and nominates you for sacrifice.”
“Har, har,” Bellanca fake laughed. Sparks of unease still sizzled in her hair, heating her scalp. Every day, they saw an innocent woman get dragged through the streets of Atlantapol andtossed over the city wall at its highest point—an offering to the gods to try to get them to raise the island and restore its magic.
As if that would work.
And every day, she had to murmur the island’s disgusting greeting to hundreds of customers knowing it really meant “let’s kill someone and see if it helps.” It hadn’t so far, and if she’d wanted to be a mother, she’d have been terrified of producing girls. Atlantians were generally prolific in their reproduction efforts, but women still had their choice of men, since after generations of sacrifice, there were fewer of them. It was pretty much theonlything women had the upper hand in here, and it came from being ritualistically murdered and living in daily fear. Children weren’t safe, either, though taking them was rare. And moving out of the main part of the city didn’t even help. Atlantapol and its outlying districts sprawled over a good portion of the island to begin with, and the king’s soldiers had no problem striking out even farther into the rural farmlands to the south and west to sometimes bring back several future sacrifices at once and keep them on hand.
